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Launitz was born into a Baltic German family in Riga, Governorate of Livonia, then part of the Russian Empire. He received a classical and military education in training for a military career. However, his interest in art intervened, and on the advice of an uncle, sculptor Eduard Schmidt von der Launitz, he went to Rome. There he trained under his uncle, and later under Thorwaldsen.[1][2] He then settled in New York in 1828, deaf and with no knowledge of English. He found work as a journeyman under John Frazee. In 1831, he and Frazee became partners. Frazee left the partnership in 1837.[1]

He designed the commemorative stone for the State of New York that is installed on the interior walls of the Washington Monument (1853): "The block ordered by the Common Council of 1852, for the Washington Monument, is now finished by the designer, Robert E. Launitz. The block is of white marble, quarried at Lee, Mass., and is larger than any one that has yet been sent to Washington, being eight feet wide, and five feet six inches in height; the weight is about four tons. . . ."[6]